Grrl Power #598 – A break in… the case! (Also ARC-Light HQ)

Sydney, you could use that sort of phrase if you were designing video games or writing comics, so it’s not as unique as she might think.

So Dabbler speaks 137 languages, which seems like an absurd number even for a comic book genius, but there are a few asterisks involved. I’ll get into them later in the comic, but for now I’ll say that she doesn’t often learn languages in the usual manner, what she calls “the long way around” and when she boasts knowing 137 languages, she means that’s how many in her (180+ year) lifetime she has learned, not how many she could bust out at a moment’s notice without a refresher course. Some of those languages she hasn’t spoken in over 100 years and basically doesn’t know them at all anymore, but her poor ego needs a little salve at the moment, so she’s number dropping.

Sydney is playing one of those stupid games that is ostensibly a Match-3 (only this one is a “connect adjacent alikes”) and success rewards you with blowing the clothes off some anime character. In every game like this I’ve ever seen, it’s some anime babe, but Sydney managed to find “Elfboy Stripper.” There has to be a market for that even if I’ve never seen it. I’ve never gone looking for that variety of the genre, but it seems the ratio of girl stripper games to boy stripper game has to be something like 100:1.

In some ways, I kind of feel bad for girls, because there isn’t an embarrassment of riches when it comes to stupid, usually poorly made, smutty games catering to them. On the other hand, I kind of feel bad for guys, because there is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to stupid, usually poorly made, smutty games catering to them. “Well that looks dumb… oh hey boobs. Have six bucks and 2 hours of my life.”

Incidentally it struck me, when composing it that Harem may not be able to teleport out. Sydney’s force field prevents Harem from teleporting. OK it does englobe her, so we envisage it blocking her, like a wall does us. Except walls do not block teleporters. They do not pass through the intervening space.

Which implies that there may be something about force fields themselves which interfere with Harem’s ability. Possibly just holding Harem’s arm and surrounding it by Maxima’s force field protected hand, is enough to prevent her teleporting. But, even more than that, Maxima’s force field automatically extends to cover anything she is holding.

So Harem is presently surrounded by a force field. Unless it is a special feature of Halo’s shield only, Harem cannot teleport at the moment!

Not quite: Harem simply can’t take anything with her
She probably could easily *VORP* out of the grip, butt she possibly didn’t think of that, or simply the little bit of pain is not as important as telling Maxi her news, and fortunately Maxi grabbed the left arm

Dave did mull over whether Harem would have a ‘no living things’ limit, in addition to her weight limit. I don’t recall him deciding one way or the other. Not that it would make a difference with anyone other than the faerie we saw in the Twilight Council. Or some hypothetical shrink spell.

Additionally we do not know how Harem’s weight limitation manifests. If she exceeds her weight limit it is possible that she can stipulate ‘I will take X with me, but leave Y behind’. Alternatively Harem may simply be unable to teleport whilst encumbered. In which case anyone could trap her by simply pinning her down with some wrestling move!

In this case MidnightDStroyer is making the case that Maxima corresponds to ‘something worn’ by clasping Harem. If the former possibility is the correct one, then Harem can opt not to teleport with Maxima, so can escape. However if it is the latter then Harem is trapped.

One other, grusome, alternative is that when Harem is over-encumbered, the excess is simply left behind. Unless she develops this as a power stunt it would probably default to the furthest things away from her not getting teleported.

In which case Maxima might loose her arm!

At which point ‘force fields protect against teleportation’ starts to sound more like a good idea.

“But, even more than that, Maxima’s force field automatically extends to cover anything she is holding.”

Really? Do we have WOG on that, because it seems utterly broken — it means that Maxima can share (most of) her invulnerability with a teammate just by holding hands. Given her speed it seems like she should be able to see attacks coming at one of her people, rush down and touch them for a moment until the attack has been tanked, then rush off back to whatever she was doing.

Actually, come to think of it, it can’t be just things that she’s *holding*. Her jacket is protected, meaning that anything that’s *touching* her is protected. So if they ever get into real trouble then the whole team just needs to put a hand on her and she can do one of those ground-zero nuke blasts of hers to take out the entire area.

I’m pretty certain that what Yorp said was incorrect. What Maxima does is basically similar to what Superman/Supergirl does when lifting something very heavy, extending their biomatrix around what’s being lifted to keep the mass from crumbling apart. It does NOT, however, transfer the invulnerability to the object.

So yes, if Maxima grabs Harem, Harem can easily get out of that hold by vorping away. Using the ‘wedgie’ incident has nothing to do with this. She vorped away on one Harem, and Maxima wedgied a DIFFERENT Harem before that one could vorp away.

Maxima’s forcefield does both aspects. In Dabbler’s Science Corner she explains that the force field enhances the structural integrity of objects that Maxima is picking up. Hence why she could hold the ambulance at one end and not have it break in half, under its own weight.

However we do have the word of god that the forcefield also provides protection. And we have canon examples the best of which is where Achilles’s uniform got burnt off by Maxima’s nuke-like attack, Maxima’s identacle one survived. They were equally exposed, but Maxima’s force field was protecting her uniform.

And, yes, that will make Maxima a superb tank. She does just need to hold someone to grant them force field protection. This is purely by deduction mind. We have no canon examples of that yet, nor has Dave volunteered information other than about objects/clothing.

The extended force field is not invincible mind. We have seen Maxima’s clothes being destroyed by the construct explosion. So the it is not quite as powerful as Maxima’s personal one (or at least that attack only managed to penetrate the outer layer and not the inner one).

My final paragraph specifically covered the protection having limits. Possibly for the same incident, but I am having trouble translating Hobbitish. And there is a discrepancy. The only incident I can recall when Maxima had broken bones was in the car park fight, where she had to reset it herself.

Pretty sure that was not her spine though. Spinal injuries tend to paralyse (I have a friend with a degenerative condition where this will happen to him soon). So even Maxima would find that a crippling injury.

I’m VERY confident that you’re wrong about that. Dabbler’s Science corner was about the ‘field’ being basically a tactile telekinetic force field around the vehicle. Which seems VERY similar to Superboy’s TTK or Superman/Supergirl’s biomatrix field. It does not make he vehicle ANY more invulnerable than it would be normally. It just means that she can lift it by the bumper without things like gravity causing the bumper to rip off and the rest of the ambulance to fall down. Like I said in my post already.

“However we do have the word of god that the forcefield also provides protection.”

No we don’t. Not like you’re describing. You sometimes do this where you make an incorrect assumption based on one thing DaveB said and asserting with absolute authority that therefore WoG means something completely different – ie, that Harem cannot teleport away if held by Maxima. If anything, the force field around her body only protects to a limited extent around her skin, and to her clothes. It doesn’t mean that by gripping Harem’s arm, Harem can’t teleport away even when grabbed.

Well, yeah, the forcefield does provide protection, just not to what she is holding

It enables her to lift something like an ecnalubma without ripping its bumper off, butt the ecnalubma wouldn’t provide any more protection if someone was shooting it than if she was simply standing behind it

This wasn’t arguing against you Pander butt more expanding on what you said (not that you exactly needed it)

As for your caveat of ‘Not like you’r describing”, I did stipulate that Dave has only made definitive statements about items carried/clothes worn. However he has been consistent in describing it in the manner quoted above.

It may well turn out that he decides such will not extend to people, or other living matter. But until he does so we have nothing to exclude people. To the contrary her force field is living matter friendly, given that it surrounds every one of her cells.

So, on the balance of the evidence available, my supposition fits the facts well. But I reiterate that we do not have anything in cannon to confirm that.

And, regardless of protection provided, Maxiama’s force field is surrounding Harem’s arm, at the very least. Which could in itself be sufficient to interfere with her teleporting. Until Harem has done more testing against other kinds of force fields, we will not be able to rule that out.

Actually we do. Dabbler’s Science corner stipulates such regards the ‘anything’, in that anything Maxima picks up is affected by her power. Last time I checked people are part of the set ‘anything’.

But, of course, magic and super powers, in games and other stories do tend to give a special status to people. So I accept that they may be excepted from her power. As I have already stated.

Do note though that if Maxima’s force field does not grant protection then she will never be able to fly fast, whilst holding a squishy. For the same reason that Sydney has to put up her force field beyond a certain point.

Nope, it doesn’t say that it ‘does not provide protection’. It is ambiguous and you are choosing to read it only one way and ignoring the other. I however clarified by quoting god above, and his turn of phrase there was absolutely unambiguous, as he used the word “invulnerability”. Which makes the intent of the Dabbler’s science corner clear too.

Contextually this is not the absolute invulnerability that Achilles has, however it is not mere structural reinforcing as you continue to argue. And you also chose to ignore that it protected Maxima’s clothes from her nuke-like attack. Structural strength does not protect against burning. Invulnerability does.

Achilles was not harmed by the same attack, yet his clothes were burnt off wherever they were exposed to the flames. Maxima, wearing the same type of clothing, had hers completely unaffected.

The invulnerability that Maxima’s force fields grant are more limited than for the ones protecting herself, but that does not stop it from being classed as protection, rather than just giving it rigidity.

OK, to try and see if we can find common ground, are you saying that Maxima has three different types of force fields / zero-range telekinetic powers? The one that surrounds herself, the weaker one that surrounds her clothes and the one that extends to other objects which are carried but not worn?

The reason why I have been so stubborn is because Dabbler’s Science Corner does not mention three but two. Not to mention that bit about saying that they are the same power.

However I can see that, plot-wise, Dave probably would not want carried ambulances to be given force field protection against attacks. To contrast that though would be that flying Halo to the Archon building should have ripped Sydney’s clothes off, from wind buffeting!

Even if we say they gained structural integrity, that does not stop buttons being undone and so on. Clothing friction can only do so much.

However, super powers do break down if over-analysed. So, if I run with there being three, they are still being provided by the one basic power. All of Maxima’s powers come from that (barring her big boom power), no matter how the power manifests itself.

Which, even with that, Harem is being surrounded by two force fields at the moment. The very strong one protecting Maxima’s hand (and thereby only being around her arm) and the structural integrity boosting one.

Now if you want to say that she is a person and not an object, then do bear in mind that Sydney should be dead. Because accelerating at the speed we saw, when the TV cameras captured them flying from the bank, should have broken Sydney’s neck!

Maxima would have had her own Gwen Stacey moment, live on TV, if the force field was not protecting Sydney by strengthening her internal structure.

No offense Yorpie, but I believe that you’re wrong. Harem is not surrounded by a force field. Zero point TK, like what Superboy does with his Tactile Telekinesis or Superman/Supergirl/Power Girl’s biomatrix do not work like that, and it seems pretty obvious that it’s the same way that Maxima’s strength works as well from Dabbler’s Science Corner. Maxima does not create force fields over whoever she touches – just a telekinetic way of keeping the objects she touches together as long as she’s touching it – insofar as that it will keep an object’s mass from breaking apart on itself due to other forces like gravity or wind-sheer. The only one who seems able to extend force fields around people in addition to himself or herself is Sydney with the Force Field Orb.

I think everyone is making sound arguments here but to add my two cents worth. While Max’s field technically could be classed as a force field and functions like you are mentioning I think that the protections around objects are more incidental then intentional. It seems to be more along the lines of assisting her strength as a main function. That’s not to say her own Fields protection is not really for that because it is, but when she pours points into Protection is that boosting the field AND her invulnerability if so this is meaning that the two are chained together but the field itself is weaker then her overall invulnerability. It has been demonstrated that it is pretty much only adding to her overall toughness but can be overcome.
Halo’s Force field on the other hand seems designed from the ground up to be impenetrable bubble and reminds me a lot of Star Trek shields (which transporters can not transport through…Mostly) To be honest I’m kinda surprised that sound and radio waves get through her shield. Though it has been shown to buffer loud and bright things for her like the flash bang grenades and Max’s blasts.

I’d bet that Harem can teleport past Max’s shield but as previously found not through Halo’s.
To hearken way back to the first couple strips did Max buy that advantage?

Hmm this got me thinking on a bunch of what ifs. Going on the assumption that while Max is extending her shield around someone, say Harem. and IF, I know she can’t, but if Harem could transport people (other then Varia….Ooh and we don’t know if Varia’s abilities only let her tag along or if it potentially extends to others as well.)
Could Harem actually transport Max outside her own shield? at least for a moment…

I know the comic. And you’re making false assumptions Read the panel you pointed out please.

‘The energy field that grants stability to objects she lifts is the same one she extends around HERSELF during flight like a deflector field. It’s also used to fortify her CELL STRUCTURE.”

NOWHERE does that say she creates Halo-style force fields around the things she holds. It’s an energy field that grants stability to objects that she lifts, and she can also use that same energy field for herself and her clothes as ‘invulnerability’ and as a deflector field when flying. Nowhere does DaveB say what you’re inferring, and he doesn’t even imply that.
Plus he doesn’t even remotely imply that it means that Harem can’t teleport away once grabbed.

I’d say let the comic creator weigh in on this debate. His world; his rules. Throwing accusations around is never good and is a great way to invite a ban hammer. All of you are speculating. We saw what happened here but we were not given an explanation. Anything the audience thinks is merely an assumption unless Dave directly adresses the question. If you are beginning to argue you are starting to no longer enjoy this comic. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Oh if DaveB was to say ‘yes, Maxima creates invulnerable force fields around whatever he touches, then I’d say that’s Word of God.

I’d consider that to be a very odd way that her powers work, especially based on other similar superheroes in comics with similar descriptions of how their superstrength works (when comics bother to explain it rather than just not a writer not understanding physics – note: DaveB does seem to give rationales for how different characters’ powers work and how it bypasses traditional physics problems, rather than just winging and handwaving it), but Dabbler’s Science Corner panel 10, however, says something entirely different.

It states Maxima extends an energy field which just grants the object stability – not that it’s a force field that protects the object from outside harm aside from gravity and mass falling in on itself. He described it like telekinesis on things that Maxima touches, not as a force field that makes the object invulnerable. Even around HERSELF, he described it as a deflector field, and did not say that it’s a deflector field around other objects. It seems to be an energy field to fortify, not to repel, things that she’s holding.

And yes, we’re speculating. Us nerds do that a lot about comics. Who would win in a fight? – Superman or Goku, Superman or Hulk, Hulk or Doomsday, Darkseid of Thanos, etc. There’s entire channels on these sort of debates over fictional characters

It doesn’t mean we’re not enjoying the comic. Please don’t tell me that we can’t talk about what we think is happening in the comic. I’ll discuss what I want to discuss about what we’re reading. If we are arguing about what happens in the comic, then it means we’re invested in the story and the characters. It’s not like I despise Yorp, and Yorp knows I don’t. And I’m pretty certain he doesn’t hate me either.

If you refuse to accept these words of the author, then I assume that you are just choosing to tweak my tail, for the heck of it. All of those highlighted bits refer to force fields, in one way or another. Unless you cannot appreciate that ‘zero range telekinesis’ and ‘force field’ are just two ways of explaining how it works?

Perhaps it will help you if I describe the way that I visualise this? Max’s power creates movable force fields – be that around her cells or throughout the object she is carrying (or wearing). Being movable she can then push herself or those objects. Or provide stability internally. Or stop other things from approaching them.

This explanation is wholly consistent with both the phrase ‘zero range TK’ (bearing in mind that it is always skin tight) and with calling it a force field. Not to mention all the various explanations we have had of it, both quoted and elsewhere.

And you, dear puppy, are missing the “near skintight” part, and the fact that a fluffy coat would get a crewcut

The forcefield only extends to the object so that she doesn’t rip the bumper off or go straight through it if she attempted to lift it, it’s the same reason why Soupgirl on TV didn’t put a hole right through that plane in the first episode

I only reacted to someone being personally accusatory. I’m a moderator (when I have time) elsewhere and I watch for that stuff and try to put the sparks out before they become full flame wars. Nothing you said was hostile. “You are making false assumptions” is a personal attack. “That is a false assumption” is not. Generally avoid “I”, “we”, “you”, etc. in a debate unless you are being personally addressed is usually the safest route. For the record if you look up the nickname “AvelWorldCreator” at the City of Titans forums that will be me. I’m just here in my personal capacity and not as a company representative so I use the name of my private company as my nickname instead.

Guys, you all make good points, however, you forget a couple of things.

First, when Max disintegrated the tank with extreme overkill, her clothes hung around. Apollo’s clothes were burnt off his body on the side exposed to the heat, along with his marshmallows.

Second, when the VORP happened (#521), Max’s clothes went up, she wasn’t hurt.

This seems to imply that her field of whatever extends out from her core to her skin and beyond, but falls back to protect her, not what she’s wearing or carrying. IOW, presume it’s a third or fourth power function that would drop even below the outer skin surface, but increases more than exponentially for each millimeter of drop. So she has high end protection, her clothes and whatever she’s carrying, not nearly as much. Think of it like a magnetic field around a couple of eight inch rare earth magnets, insanely strong a few millimeters apart, but separate them by a meter or so and anyone can pick it up and walk away with it. (Don’t try that at home, a pair of eight inch diameter, two inch thick rare earth magnets are more than strong enough to kill you very quickly.)

What I think we are all forgetting is Max’s Pool, so she must use more of the pool to expand her force field. That’s why she had points put in her field to protect her clothes during the demonstration. There have been some cases were the damage has effected her clothes, but those time she was surprised bye the attack or she just did not want to waste points in protecting her clothing.

With that said Max has a very good self control, she has to with her power set. So going by the comic she has to control her change in powers. Her field may effect Harem teleportation, but I am sure the writer would have put a little note showing how she was holding her in place. All she was doing is gripping her arm and scolding her so Harem did not feel the need to teleport to safety. Since it was teleporting that got her into trouble the first time, but thats just me/

I agree that it is not the author’s intent to show that Harem cannot escape. She is not trying to, she is here to report to her boss.

I was merely speculating that she may not be able to, if Maxima’s force field is interfering with her teleportation ability at the moment. But that would not be something Dave needs to point out in this scene.

I like your initial point about Maxima’s variable defence. It is perfectly logical that if she is boosting her personal protection then the strength of the force field around her clothes would increase proportionately too.

Possibly, if Maxima concentrates, she can dump power specifically just into the clothing force field? Say if she has to enter an environment that is toxic even to her, she could put on protective clothing and boost its force field to the Max.

And, if I carry on running with the three force field compromise detailed above (personal, clothing, carried items/people) Maxima may be able to develop a power stunt to improve the third one, to provide full protection, not just structural integrity.

Though I don’t think Maxima agrees with that mentality and will probably stare anyone who mention it into submission. This might however not be very effective if it’s Sydney or Dabbler, the two who are most likely to bring this up or actually implementing it respectively…

Sydney has done the burning bit. Twice. Seems to have something against forests!

The manikin SWAT team interrupted the only only opportunity that Halo has had for looting. Probably fortunately. She was mentally fatigued and making some bad errors of judgement around about that time.

Once she has had the chance to spend a few of her paychecks, I am sure her resistance will improve.

Quite pertinent to the cops here, in Bulgaria. Corruption used to be endemic. Since joining the EU though the younger generation have had a tougher stance against bribery drilled into them. Such that people grew wary of attempting that with younger cops.

But last year they slashed the salary of cops (in a way that the less experienced and lower paid ones would be impacted the most), to the extent that it would be hard to make ends meet without some form of topping up the wage!

It is a really poor country mind, so they do have to make tough choices. However the EU have been withholding many many millions of euros in aid, due to the rampant corruption. Which, if they got a handle on it, or even showed they were making good progress, would be unlocked. So making cops more susceptible to bribery is heavily counter-productive.

I want to see Archon members themselves doing an RPG session.
Or even better: I want to see Maxima in a trench coat, sneaking into a dark building, where she goes to play DnD with Sydney and her group.

I could totally see this being done. Its even justifiable. “Look, im serious here, run a few D&D campaigns with me and your mental flexibility will increase. The name of the game is exploiting your abilities in ways both new and devastatingly effective. These are basically wargames carried out with miniatures instead of dummy ammo. We will start with standard classes then work our way up to homebrewing copies of yourselves and seeing what outrageous techniques you can come up with. Then try them in real life to see if it can happen.”

You are conflating two separate things. The prudishness you mention, but you omit sexual experience – Sydney has not had much.* Intellectually Sydney is not a prude, by any measure. She was quite happy to introduce Arianna to hentai porn.** Plus wanted to give her orbs official names such as ‘hentai orb’.

Likewise, as you mention, she swears creatively enough to make a sailor blush! And give a screen caption writer a mental breakdown. Further she is OK talking sexual matters, when she does not feel any personal pressure on her. So, because Maxima is prudish on such matters, and does not push any of Sydney’s boundaries, she is comfortable talking about guys they fancy (e.g. topless Hiro).

But put her in a situation where she has sexual matters thrust on her, such as realising that when she was on the phone to Dabbler she was in bed with someone, she then gets flustered. Due to being unused to handling such things.

Likewise in any situation where she may find her own ‘inadequacies’ exposed for others to see. Due to the fact that Sydney has acute self-esteem problems. She does not consider that she is beautiful, or even pretty. Compounded by being surrounded by attractive, fit, well-endowed rivals.

Thus why we saw Sydney dressed like the Mummy. Similarly when Harem threatened that Sydney might need to expose herself, and Sydney took that to heart, she had her massive breakdown.

If other female teammates want to take risque photos of themselves, to compensate guys for them taking similar snaps of the guys, that quite titillates her. But suggest that she would be expected to do the same, and her (figurative) walls go straight up. Likewise wearing her diving suit, instead of a bikini, or any other vaguely revealing swimwear.

So Sydney’s game is wholly in character. She is fine with porn. She is fine with other people stripping. It is just her having to do that which frightens her. And possibly only when in a more public context. That may or may not be a problem in a more personal intimate situation. I would guess that Sydney will be a ‘lights off’ kind of gal. At least until she has had enough guys telling her how attractive they find her.

* Not to be read as code for ‘virgin’. But Sydney does not have many notches on her bedpost.

** Taking the relevant sub-comic as canon. Which I believe is fair as it matches other indicators we have.

If you pay attention to Sydney’s fantasy life she isn’t prudish in that context. She has difficulties with real life and she’s just reactionary. Once she is comfortable with something that will vanish. Her fantasies are her “safe space” automatically. Games are fantasy for her and fall into that comfort zone. And you will notice she is more than happy to oggle a handsome male.

Although hopefully not, if they have paid attention in their sexual harassment classes. Sydney looked on the verge of an emotional breakdown, when Harem embarrassed her at the pool-side. If Super Hiro and the other guys saw her with that, it could tip Sydney over the edge. Even if it did not, Arianna would have to consider whether she should recommend that the perpetrator be fired or just put on more rigorous training courses.

Whilst I knew half a dozen African languages I did not consider myself to be a linguist or even anything special. To the contrary I was learning some of those languages from people who spoke over twenty fluently. And they considered themselves to be average! Not once did I find a black person who spoke as few languages as I did.

South Africa has a huge diversity of languages, and (at that time) there were many who did not speak either of the official state languages (English and Afrikaans). So it was a matter of necessity, for anyone travelling around, either to find work, supervise it or otherwise interact in any but the most rudimentary way, to learn multiple languages. Or suffer the problems of finding and paying translators.

I think mostly it’s probably American readers who find it incredulous that a person might know many languages. When I was in school, taking a language was optional in middle school, and only two years were required in high school. That was long ago, but I haven’t heard that it’s changed a whole lot. It’s definitely not emphasized that multilingualism is a good thing. The teachers I had were excellent though – I took German and Spanish, and both teachers were enthusiatic about the languages and cultures they taught. Herr Kloesel. (there’s an umlaut there, I forget where) was a native speaker (of German), but also spoke English with no perceptible non-American accent. Which I thought was really impressive.

Over the “o” in the last name. German is what I took in high school. But I was there for my second time in German and actually toured the country with both my class and my family. Not shockingly I ranked 3rd in standardized tests for my school’s first year students without studying and even dreamed in the language. Then I lived in SW Texas for around 10 years and had a Central American wife for seven years. I don’t do bad in Spanish either (not “TexMex” – I focus on the Castellan dialect. German I studied the Uber Deutch dialect). Then I have around 20+ programming languages under my belt – Most of them I learned over 10 years (I do language inplemention and development). I’ve worked with foreign nationals many of whom have acquired around 6-8 languages typically. Once you start working on one language in a family the rest come pretty easily. i.e. Spanish and Italian.Turkish drives me nuts to hear because the dialect often sounds German. Dutch spelling messes with me too but I can pronounce it easily enough just haven’t had much chance to mess with it. Chinese (Mandarin) is on my list and I have a few words but I haven’t “cracked the books” in months.

The truesight orb enhances sight. So it is not unreasonable that allowing Halo to see in all directions around her might be one of the upgrades.

And no, it is not my prediction for what she will get next. Or even that it would be on the tree. Comedy wise Sydney not seeing what is going on behind her has already yielded gold. But it sure would come in useful to her, if she did have it!

It makes sense as a potential upgrade, but I think she has spent plenty on her truesight orb for now. Lets see what her flight or shield orb upgrades can unleash! But yeah, the spaceship theory is panning out. That sight orb now lets her scan auras, communicate via hologram with anyone within range, honestly, the teleport thing seems a bit out of the bubble of potential communication skills, but I suppose its just as easy to justify it as an upgrade of the hologram. ACTUAL presence to communicate. But if anything, I would expect the flight orb to offer that skill, though maybe there will be a much longer range version unlocked for improved travel times.

I don’t really buy the “spaceship” theory. There’s no real reason for it. A spaceship is better suited to be a thing, present, in one piece with all systems active and functioning whether the pilot is thinking of (or has hands on the controls of) those sytems or not. The orbs are a tool kit for a spy or explorer, available to hand such that no foe or action can take them away when most needed. that the tools seem to encompass the functions of a spaceship is merely a parallel of mission needs.

Yea, those are oft-speculated about. Plus one of those (linking the PPO with the Flyball) receives particular attention. Typically to indicate that it upgrades the PPO to tank-melting beam, whilst flying.

Although I have always wondered why folks made that assumption, given that we had never seen the basic operation of the PPO before that scene. Previously we had only seen the aftermath of the testing she did in the forest (namely setting it on fire). So the actual use could have been identical.

But, if assuming that the pre-selected skills are due to Sydney’s actions, rather than a default setting or a previous owner, then it is either that or some other feature that is not immediately apparent.

I am going to hide this with the spoiler tag, as it may be right. It is cool though, either way.

It could have unlocked an automatic point defence against incoming missile/ projectile attacks. As Halo has not been shot at under those circumstances she would not know that she has such a power.

It is easy to see why the maker(s) may have designed this feature, when realising that to use the PPO, whilst flying, means that the user is likely to be in a dangerous situation, yet cannot have her shield up.

The fourth panel is kinda weird? I mean, why is it there? It’s not continuing on from anything, and is immediately ignored afterwards. It’s irrelevant. Nothing led up to it, it doesn’t present anything, even humour or eye candy, and the next panels ignore it completely.

Frankly it just seems like something to take up the space. It breaks up the flow for nothing. Maybe it’ll be important on the next page or wherever but it feels out of place currently.

Like you I took panel 4 to be referring to someone smarter even than Dabbler. Likewise assuming ‘yet to be introduced’. But, on reflection, given her claim, on the previous page, that she is the smartest person on the planet, that seems less likely (unless of course they are not on the planet, which is entirely possible with this setting).

If we take Dabbler’s boast at face value, then factor in that Sydney outsmarted her with the ‘tracking spell on the rock idea’, that changes panel 4 into being a concession that Sydney is smarter than her. Albeit for that idea, rather than being able to scratch build a spaceship from junkyard scrap. As Dabbler is a genius, that would elevate Sydney to being a super genius!

Yet in panel 5 we see that the tablet the ‘actual super genius’ has been intently focusing on, through this discussion of important police matters, was a low-brow match-3 things game!

With additional humour, in the final panel, when Sydney is disappointed that instead of whisking away Elfboy’s pants, she only managed to remove his belt.

Nonetheless I await the next page eagerly in case Dave presented this angle as a misdirecting fish, and the actual super genius is indeed about to be contacted for advice.

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